Archive for the ‘IARU’ tag

First off, to all of the ops that worked me, especially those who worked me on multiple bands and modes and who also let me know when they were active on another band so I could work them. It was a pleasure to work you all.

As far as I’m concerned, band conditions were lousy. I invested a lot of time and energy into this contest. I certainly wish I could have worked more DX, but I did manage more time in the chair and was able to increase my raw score by a factor of 3.2 over last year and increase my mults by a factory of 1.6. Although some of my score increase is related to more operating time, it is due more to better preparation and learning from all of the other contests in which I’ve participated over the past year. I still have a long way to go.

I decided to use spotting this time. In long contests i get bored. It’s nice to see a populated bandmap in N1MM. Don’t get me wrong, I do take advantage of the spots from time to time, but I don’t use it to chase mults. I never purposefully QSY to a mult frequency, except if a station requests that I do [see below]. Instead, I use the spotting to fill the bandmap in order to make me aware of stations I should be or may be hearing as I move up and down the band. I’m quite certain that my use of spotting did not significantly increase my QSO count or mults, but it did make things more enjoyable.

In their infinite wisdom, the ARRL folks responsible for setting rules have failed miserably in this one — There is no Single-Op Assisted category! Thus, if you want to use spotting assistance, you must enter the Multi-Op Single-Transmitter (MS) category.

4.1. Single Operator

4.1.3. Use of spotting nets, packet, or multi-channel decoders (such as CW Skimmer) is not permitted. Single-operator stations that use spotting nets, packet or multi-channel decoders will be reclassified to the Multi-operator, Single Transmitter category.

I don’t have a problem at all with there being category separators for Assisted and Unassisted. I do have a problem with being punished by being forced into a category intended for the “big guns” when I’m not a big gun by any stretch of the imagination. I neither have a big gun station nor the contesting skills of a big gun.

4.2. Multi Operator, Single Transmitter, Mixed Mode only

4.2.1. Must remain on a band and mode for at least 10 minutes before changing bands or modes.

4.2.4.Violation of the band change rules will reclassify the entry as a checklog.

This means that if a station wants you to QSY to another band to work them, you have to be sure that you’ve already spent at least ten minutes on the first band and that you spend at least ten minutes on the second band before returning back to the first one.

This happened to me at least once, when I worked NU1AW/5 on 15m CW and then QSY’d immediately to 20m to work them. This didn’t break me, but what happened next did…

As you can see, I was on 15m [and had been for some time], worked NU1AW/5, and then switched to 20m to work NU1AW/5 again. No harm, no foul. But, after I worked them, I instantly went back to 15m. Even worse, after I went back to 15m but barely spent ten minutes there. So, quite possibly the QSY from 15m to 20m at 1402-1403Z would be considered a violation of the band change rule even if the QSY from 20m to 15m after 1353z hadn’t been.

It was a real buzzkill moment when I realized I had done this at least once, possibly more. I never have intentions of running Multi-Op Single Transmitter, but I realized that if I wanted to be honest I needed to get out of the Single-Op category if I was going to use spotting. I really didn’t pay close attention to the Multi-Op rules. I was aware that there was a band change rule, but it just didn’t stick in my head during the contest.

At any rate, not only were the band conditions poor compared to last year, but I was forced into the Multi-Op Single Transmitter category simply because I wanted to use spotting and then was finally forced out of competition by a band change rule that should never have applied to me in the first place.

What the hell? I’ve got a parallel dipole up 20′, an inverted-V doublet up 38′ at the apex, and I don’t use an amp. How the hell is there justice in adding additional insult to a “little pistol” station by forcing them into a “big gun” category?

I have absolutely no desire to turn in a log, but I will because logs are needed not only to verify my QSOs but to verify the QSOs of those I worked. So I’ll be a good little boy and turn one in. Then I’ll wait patiently for the royal spanking that the ARRL will give me. I’m not sure how they will notify me. I guess I’ll just have to learn of my fate once the 2011 official scores are made available and I’m not listed [indicating a checklog].

Just so we’re clear here, I have no problem with the Multi-Op rules, and I also have no problem with people using assistance having to be in a separate category from those who don’t. The problem I have is that there is no Single-Op Assisted category.

A Single-Op Assisted category is even more important because there are those who won’t submit a Multi-Op Single Transmitter entry when they use spotting. They’ll simply fly under the radar. After all, if you use spotting but you never personally spot somebody and your logs don’t reflect that you’ve jumped around the band specifically working spotted multipliers, you can easily cheat by using assistance in Single-Op. Without a Single-Op Assisted category, there will be those people who can’t bring themselves to submit as an MS entry. Had their been an SO(A) category, they’d be more likely to submit in that category rather than cheat.

The IARU HF World Championship is this weekend, from Saturday, Jul 9, 1200Z to Sunday, Jul 10, 1200Z. I entered this contest last year as SOCW LP and made around 312 Qs in 12 hours. I only managed 42 ITU zones and 48 HQ mults. “Piss poor” is what comes to mind. Looking at past scores, another Ohioan managed 376 Qs, 76 ITU zones and 93 HQ mults, but he was also running high power and likely had at least one yagi. At any rate, I’d sure like to manage something more than 42 zones and 312 Qs.

The problem is that there is no way I’m going to run anywhere near 24 hours. I’m not even sure I can put in 8 hours. My antenna situation is no better than it was last year at this time either. Sure, I have an 80m doublet up now that wasn’t up before, but it’s not going to perform any better than the DX-EE performed last year on 10/15/20. And, on 40/80m neither antenna is a DX antenna. This would have been a perfect contest to try out a new yagi or hex beam — but I don’t own one!

Certainly I’ve learned a few things in the last year. One would hope I could improve upon last years’ score if all other things were the same (propogation, time in seat, antennas). All I know is that I really need to increase my DXCC count. I had spent most of this past year working on various WAS awards and have neglected DX for the most part. I just don’t feel like much of a contester, or amateur radio op for that matter, when I can’t manage to work outside of the US!

Final plans haven’t been decided, and won’t be until the very last minute. The early weather forecast predicts very nice weather [no storms] for the weekend. I’ll have both the doublet and the DX-EE up. But, I’m still trying to recuperate from FD. I predict a bad weekend as far as back pain goes.

I spent too much time on 10m last year with two little reward. Hopefully propogation is favorable for some 10m DX, and hopefully 15m will be booming. Upon looking at last years’ results, 15m/10m were dismal and 20m was the only band worthwhile for a station using low dipoles.

I’ve got a list of things to do to prepare for this one, but it’s all contingent upon my back pain not being too severe. We’ll see.

I made 7 contacts. If I recall correctly, they were all on 40m. I really wasn’t hearing anything from Europe all weekend. 20 was deader than a doornail. Everyone I heard on 40m working this event answered my call.

I just made a few contacts because I happened to hear a few stations on, and of course i turned in my log so that those I worked can benefit from any points they’d get from me.